Call for panel chairs: second annual “Online Olio” webinar series for Fall 2021
Co-founded by Arnaud Zimmern, Sophia Richardson, and E Mariah Spencer. Affiliated with the International Margaret Cavendish Society and hosted by Digital Cavendish.
In October, 2020, the Online Olio, sponsored by the International Margaret Cavendish Society (IMCS), debuted a sequence of online webinars that helped members of the Society fight scholarly isolation when the biennial conference was cancelled due to the pandemic. It was a victory for international outreach, with high participant engagement from a dynamic mixture of early- and late-career students, established professors, and independent scholars. We are excited to continue and enhance this online program as a complement to our in-person events, such as the 2022 IMCS conference at Florida Southwestern State College. Our goals include making the works of Margaret Cavendish and her readers more broadly available, expanding teaching resources, deepening and diversifying ties between graduate students, early-career researchers, and advanced and independent scholars, and fortifying critical conversations about Cavendish and her contemporaries.
To that end, we are currently seeking panel chairs to design innovative webinars for fall 2021 (tentatively scheduled for Saturdays in October). Graduate students, post-docs, or similarly early-career scholars are eligible to apply by July 28th, 2021. If your proposal is successful, we will then provide an online venue for you to present your work and invite your most admired scholars to present alongside you. Our 3 finalists will benefit from customized logistical help, free advertising, week-of and day-of coordination, and hosting on Zoom and YouTube by experienced former chairs. In the proposal form linked here, please submit your CV and a 150-200 word abstract describing a panel you would like to design and chair, along with a wish list of 5-6 panelists (ideally a mix of late and early career researchers) with whom you want to present.
We are always eager to hear more interpretations of Cavendish’s works, both on themes common to existing scholarship (early modern women writers, natural philosophers, and Restoration dramatists, among others) and on new avenues, disciplines, and periods. We warmly invite a broad range of international and interdisciplinary participants. To see examples of past sessions, check out our 2020 panels on education and access, insects, and imagination on our YouTube channel here. For questions, or to inquire about suitable panel topics, please email us at theonlineolio@gmail.com.
